Liquid or liquid-like materials, such as resins, medicines or other healthcare liquids, grouts, and the like are often utilized or needed at a location remote from a storage or source. Therefore, the materials are pumped or otherwise transported from the storage or source to the location of the end use application for the material. The materials can be transported relatively long distances. For example, resin used for pipe repair can be pumped hundreds of feet. Liquids used in healthcare, such as pumping a material through a patient's blood vessel or to a location in a patient, may not be as long of a distance, but due to the size of the material and delivery apparatus, the distance is comparable to pumping the resin for pipe repair over the longer distance.
To be able to pump the material the required distance, the viscosity of the liquid material must be low enough to not become clogged or otherwise prevent the movement of the material. While the low viscosity material is ideal for pumping or transporting, it can be less than ideal for the actual end use application for the material. For example, a material having a low viscosity would sag or fall off the interior wall of the pipe or structure, when used to repair pipes. For other uses, the low viscosity of the material will prevent proper end use applications as well. Blood or medicine that is transported to a particular location in a patient may not be able to be utilized, as it does not have the correct consistency or viscosity for the use.
Methods have been used to try to change the viscosity of a material in transport. One application has been used in pipe repair. The technology will take a two-part epoxy and twin hoses—one hose having part A and the other having part B. The materials are pumped through the hoses and then mixed at the end of the hose; typically, where there is a spinning nozzle that will spin the materials onto the wall of the pipe. The mixed material is typically very thick (high viscosity), making it difficult to pump through the hoses. To compensate, heated hoses are used to lower the viscosity by raising the temperature. A problem with this is that heated hoses in a pipeline, especially in a sewer, are not a good thing. In addition, the hoses are very expensive and are big, heavy, and bulky, with connectors that can short out and corrode. Another disadvantage is that when the material does come out the end, it is a low viscosity because it has been heated. Even if the last 25-50 feet of hose is not heated, which allows the material to thicken, you now have 50 feet of hose that you are pumping a high viscosity material, which will require higher pressures. There is also the concern of viscosities not changing between A and B because you need the proper mix ratio.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for pumping a curable material a long distance, while allowing the viscosity of the material to be changed prior to reaching its end use application such that the material will be in a usable form at the location of its end use.